Banking-and-Finance-Team-of-the-Year

(L-R) Awards host Shadia Bseiso; Dechert partners Louise Roman and Patrick Lyons; Legal Week Intelligence director James Mayer)

Finalists: Al Tamimi & Company; Ashurst; Baker McKenzie; Clifford Chance (Highly Commended); Dentons; Hadef & Partners; Hogan Lovells; Morgan Lewis & Bockius.

Dechert's London-based capital markets team helped the firm land the banking and finance team of the year title for its work on Egypt's largest ever public government debt deal.

The $4bn bond, issued in February, followed a $4bn private placement in November last year, meaning Dechert helped the government raise a combined $8bn in the space of just three months. Led by Dechert's capital markets head Camille Abousleiman, the deal is the latest in a long line of Egyptian bond issues the firm has advised on, having guided the country through its debut eurobond sale in 2001 and a landmark 2015 deal that followed a five-year market hiatus in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The latest pair of deals came as the country sought to raise cash to revive its economy and bolster its foreign currency reserves. While the public deal broke ground as the country's largest public bond issue, the private placement presented a number of challenges from a legal perspective given the nature of the deal, which was purchased by Egypt's central bank and used as collateral on a series of loans with international financial institutions.

"A great achievement," noted a judge.